In this paper we introduce a new probabilistic method which integrates building extraction with change detection in remotely sensed image pairs. A global optimization process attempts to find the optimal configuration of buildings, considering the observed data, prior knowledge, and interactions between the neighboring building parts. We present methodological contributions in three key issues: (1) We implement a novel object-change modeling approach based on Multitemporal Marked Point Processes, which simultaneously exploits low level change information between the time layers and object level building description to recognize and separate changed and unaltered buildings. (2) To answering the challenges of data heterogeneity in aerial and satellite image repositories, we construct a flexible hierarchical framework which can create various building appearance models from different elementary feature based modules. (3) To simultaneously ensure the convergence, optimality and computation complexity constraints raised by the increased data quantity, we adopt the quick Multiple Birth and Death optimization technique for change detection purposes, and propose a novel non-uniform stochastic object birth process, which generates relevant objects with higher probability based on low-level image features.

In this paper a novel supervised classification approach is proposed for high resolution dual polarization (dualpol) amplitude satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. A novel probability density function (pdf) model of the dual-pol SAR data is developed that combines finite mixture modeling for marginal probability density functions estimation and copulas for multivariate distribution modeling. The finite mixture modeling is performed via a recently proposed SAR-specific dictionarybased stochastic expectation maximization approach to SAR amplitude pdf estimation. For modeling the joint distribution of dual-pol data the statistical concept of copulas is employed, and a novel copula-selection dictionary-based method is proposed. In order to take into account the contextual information, the developed joint pdf model is combined with a Markov random field approach for Bayesian image classification. The accuracy of the developed dual-pol supervised classification approach is validated and compared with benchmark approaches on two high resolution dual-pol TerraSAR-X scenes, acquired during an epidemiological study. A corresponding single-channel version of the classification algorithm is also developed and validated on a single polarization COSMO-SkyMed scene.

We analyze the illumination invariance of the level lines of an image. We show that if the scene
surface has Lambertian reflectance and the light is directed, then a necessary and sufficient condition
for the level lines to be illumination invariant is that the three-dimensional scene be developable and
that its albedo satisfy some geometrical constraints. We then show that the level lines are “almost”
invariant for piecewise developable surfaces. Such surfaces fit most of the urban structures. This
allows us to devise a fast and simple algorithm that detects changes between pairs of remotely
sensed images of urban areas, independently of the lighting conditions. We show the effectiveness of
the algorithm both on synthetic OpenGL scenes and real QuickBird images. The synthetic results
illustrate the theory developed in this paper. The two real QuickBird images show that the proposed
change detection algorithm is discriminant. For easy scenes it achieves a rate of 85% detected changes
for 10% false positives, while it reaches a rate of 75% detected changes for 25% false positives on
demanding scenes.

In this letter, we address the problem of estimating the amplitude probability density function (pdf) of single-channel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. A novel flexible method is developed to solve this problem, extending the recently proposed dictionary-based stochastic expectation maximization approach (developed for a medium-resolution SAR) to very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery, and enhanced by introduction of a novel procedure for estimating the number of mixture components, that permits to reduce appreciably its computational complexity. The specific interest is the estimation of heterogeneous statistics, and the developed method is validated in the case of the VHR SAR imagery, acquired by the last-generation satellite SAR systems, TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed. This VHR imagery allows the appreciation of various ground materials resulting in highly mixed distributions, thus posing a difficult estimation problem that has not been addressed so far. We also conduct an experimental study of the extended dictionary of state-of-the-art SAR-specific pdf models and consider the dictionary refinements.

In this paper, we describe a new optimization method which we call Multiple Birth and Cut (MBC). It combines the recently developed Multiple Birth and Death (MBD) algorithm and the Graph-Cut algorithm. MBD and MBC optimization methods are applied to energy minimization of an object based model, the marked point process. We compare the MBC to the MBD showing their respective advantages and drawbacks, where the most important advantage of the MBC is the reduction of number of parameters. We demonstrate that by proposing good candidates throughout the selection phase in the birth step, the speed of convergence is increased. In this selection phase, the best candidates are chosen from object sets by a belief propagation algorithm. We validate our algorithm on the flamingo counting problem in a colony and demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms the MBD algorithm.

Object extraction from images is one of the most important tasks in remote sensing image analysis. For accurate extraction from very high resolution (VHR) images, object geometry needs to be taken into account. A method for incorporating strong yet flexible prior shape information into a marked point process model for the extraction of multiple objects of complex shape is presented. To control the computational complexity, the objects considered are defined using the image data and the prior shape information. To estimate the optimal configuration of objects, the process is sampled using a Markov chain based on a stochastic birth-and-death process on the space of multiple objects. The authors present several experimental results on the extraction of tree crowns from VHR aerial images.